From Middle English symple, simple, from Old French - and French simple, from Latin simplex (as opposed to duplex), from semel + plicō.

Partially displaced native English onefold.

• IPA: /ˈsɪmpəl/, [ˈsɪmpl̩]

simple (comparative simpler, superlative simplest)

1. Uncomplicated; lacking complexity; taken by itself, with nothing added.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?

2. Easy; not difficult.
3. Without ornamentation; plain.
4. Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
   • 1605, Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], The Dutch Courtezan. […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for Iohn Hodgets, […], →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page):

     Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.

   • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC ↗, stanza XXXVI:

     Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?

   • 1838 July 24, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Literary Ethics. An Oration Delivered before the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, July 24, 1838”, in J[ames] E[lliot] Cabot, editor, Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Emerson’s Complete Works; I), Riverside edition, London: The Waverley Book Company, published 1883, →OCLC ↗, page 160 ↗:

     Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great. The vision of genius comes by renouncing the too officious activity of the understanding, and giving leave and amplest privilege to the spontaneous sentiment.

5. Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.

   Antonyms: gentle

6. (archaic) Trivial; insignificant.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum LV”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book X (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC ↗:

     ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’

     ‘That was a simple cause,’ said Sir Tristram, ‘for to slay a good knight for to say well by his master.’

7. (now, colloquial, euphemism) Feeble-minded; foolish.
8. (heading, technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
   1. (chemistry, pharmacology) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
   2. (mathematics) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
   3. (botany) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
   4. Using steam only once in its cylinders, in contrast to a compound engine, where steam is used more than once in high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders. (of a steam engine)
   5. (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.

      a simple ascidian

   6. (mineralogy) Homogenous.
9. (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All's Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.

• (consisting of a single part or aspect) onefold
• (having few parts or features) basic, plain, uncomplex, uncomplicated
• See also Thesaurus:easy and Thesaurus:bare-bones

• (antonym(s) of “having few parts or features”): complex, compound, complicated
• (antonym(s) of “uncomplicated”): subtle

• French: simple
• German: einfach, simpel
• Italian: semplice, mero
• Portuguese: simples
• Russian: просто́й
• Spanish: simple, sencillo

• French: simple
• German: einfach, simpel
• Portuguese: simples
• Russian: просто́й

simple (plural simples)

1. (pharmaceutical drug) A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 37, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:

     I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying.

   • a. 1700 (date written), William Temple, “Of Health and Long-life”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. […], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, →OCLC ↗, pages 183–184 ↗:

     [W]hat Virtue there is in this Remedy lies in the naked Simple it ſelf, as it comes over from the Indies, and in the Choice of that which is leaſt dried, or periſhed by the Voyage.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC ↗:

     The first fellow that picked an herb to cure himself had a bit of pluck. Simples. Want to be careful.

2. (obsolete, by extension) A physician.
3. (logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
4. (obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

     But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels

5. (weaving) A drawloom.
6. (weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
7. (Roman Catholicism) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.

• French: simple
• Spanish: simple

simple (simples, present participle simpling; simple past and past participle simpled)

1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs.